Despite his slight stature – he is only a few inches above 4ft – he fearlessly harries rivals who look twice his size. “He is a superb skater and has such vision,” Smith says proudly. That would be letting down the team.” Any youngsters caught smoking are dropped from his sides, and when asked what benefits he thinks his sons have gained from ice hockey, he replies: “Self-discipline, character and being part of a team.”Simon, his tongue fully mended, is now 16 and has been net-minder for the Great Britain Under-16 squad for the past two years. Andrew, 11, learnt to skate when he was three and played in an under-12 competition aged just four. He has played for England Under-12s and is a regular member of the Bears Under-16 side. “I have boys on the team who would be thugs and in constant trouble with the police if it wasn’t for ice hockey But it isn’t an excuse for them to have a fight.

But they soon learn there is always someone bigger and better than yourself.”Ice hockey may look like legalised mayhem, but discipline is a word that Smith uses constantly. This is a massive growth area.”The Medway Bears typify this growth. They are not particularly famous or successful, nor do they have a lucrative sponsorship deal. The Gillingham ice-rink owes its design to the Russian brutalist school, and it is inconveniently positioned on a business park outside town But youngsters are flocking to join in. At Monday’s practice session for the Under-12s, more than 40 turned up, with the youngest aged just four.Brian Smith is the Bears’ manager and owner “This is an excellent game for youngsters,” he said.

“I think it is the speed that attracts them, plus the fact that they can get aggressive and it is allowed to a degree. But if that’s so, how come thousands of parents are happy to let their offspring (some as young as three) play the game?Ice hockey for teenies is flourishing. The sport is growing at 15 per cent a year, and most of those newcomers are youngsters. David Pickles, general secretary of the British Ice Hockey Association, says, “About three-quarters of the players are now under 16. A simple indictment, you may feel, of a parent’s foolishness at allowing children still at infant school to play one of the world’s most violent games – and you would be hopelessly wrong. Simon’s injury was the result of a fall while learning to ice-skate.

Far from instilling a paranoia about frozen water, the incident led, in a convoluted way, to him becoming one of Britain’s best young ice hockey players.
To the uninitiated, ice hockey is 12 Michelin men playing GBH, bushido on ice. Simon Smith, his tongue split wide open, was hauled off to hospital It was the sort of injury every parent dreads. His father, Brian, passed a sleepless night at his son’s bedside, wondering how badly his seven-year-old would be scarred. With a month’s gap to come before the daunting trip to Parc des Princes, where Ireland have never won, the Scottish game is very much the pivotal one of the season.Bizarrely, given only Terry Kingston of this team has sampled victory over the Scots, a nation expects. This leaves David Corkery as the shortest of the pack’s back five at 6ft 4in.Better organised, fitter, more focused, now all Ireland need is the confidence of a first win over Scotland since 1988. This is indeed dangerous, but for once the Irish may be justified in their eternal optimism..